Mixtec
Americannoun
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a member of an Indigenous people of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Puebla, Mexico.
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the Oto-Manguean language of the Mixtecs, consisting of a number of highly divergent dialects.
adjective
noun
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a member of an American Indian people of Mexico
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the language of this people
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of Mixtec
First recorded in 1840–50; from Mexican Spanish mixteco, from Nahuatl mixtēcah, plural of mixtēcatl “person from Mixtlān ” ( mix ( tli ) “cloud” + -tlān locative suffix, -tēcatl suffix of personal nouns)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Her eye for cinema is evident in the brash photos she took in 1992 of the annual sacrifice of hundreds of goats that takes place in the Mixtec Mountains of Oaxaca.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
Clinics are far from where they live, she said, and many don’t speak English or Spanish — for instance, they may speak Indigenous languages such as Mixtec, which is common in parts of Mexico.
From Salon ● May 23, 2024
His mother tongue wasn't Spanish, but a Mixtec indigenous language spoken in parts of Mexico and Central America.
From Reuters ● Apr. 27, 2023
This portrait was painted in 1812 by an unknown Mixtec Indian artist.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
Many residents say it is rooted in the Zapo- tec and Mixtec indigenous cultures.
From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario
The Mixtecs of Oaxaca first developed the method to obtain the precious pigment centuries before the Spaniards arrived.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 1, 2023
Their voices and the soft conversations of couples circling the plaza were like birdsong: Zapotecs and Mixtecs speaking with a lilt and tumble and murmur that was so pleasing.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 28, 2016
The Museum was too busy spending money on such academic sure things as the arts of the Mayas, the Mixtecs and the Aztecs.
From Time Magazine Archive
Monte Alban had been a fortress of the anciently rich and powerful Mixtecs, or Cloud People.
From Time Magazine Archive
With them were the Olmecs under their leader Olmecatl, the Huastecs, under their leader Huastecatl, the Mixtecs and others.
From The Maya Chronicles Brinton's Library Of Aboriginal American Literature, Number 1 by Brinton, Daniel Garrison
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
